WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates for conservation and stewardship of the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.

A Resolution Against Phosphate Mines in Florida –Florida Waterkeepers 2017-12-18

Update 2018-12-30: The new organization WATERKEEPERS Florida, as one of its first acts, on December 19, 2018, signed the Resolution Against Phosphate Mines in Florida, thus committing all thirteen of its member organizations.

WHEREAS, Waterkeeper Alliance Members are obligated and dedicated to protect the water
resources, citizens’ interests, and related benefits in their
jurisdictions; and

WHEREAS, phosphate mines have been shown to threaten and cause actual harm to these
resources, interest, and related benefits; and

WHEREAS, there are several phosphate mine projects in various stages of permitting in local,
state, and federal agencies including county and city governments,
Water Management Districts (WMDs),
Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP),
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); and

WHEREAS, there seems to be no public list of current phosphate mines and related facitlities,
which include at least

According to FDEP, Mining and Mitigation, Phosphate Mines: “Today phosphate mining
occurs primarily in the central Florida area (Polk, Hillsborough,
Manatee, and Hardee counties). The central Florida phosphate-mining
region covers approximately 1.3 million acres of land known as the
“Bone Valley.””

“There are 27 phosphate mines covering more than 491,900 acres. The smallest
phosphate mine is approximately 5,000 acres with the largest
approximately 100,000 acres. Of the commodities mined in Florida,
phosphate mining is the most land intensive, disturbing between
5,000 to 6,000 acres annually; approximately 25 to 30% of these
lands are isolated wetlands or wetlands connected to waters of the
state.” —FDEP, Phosphate Mines

Many people still have not even heard of this: “Mosaic
Company’s New Wales fertilizer factory about 20 miles east of Tampa
has developed a sinkhole which dumped more than 215 million gallons
of highly acidic wastewater along with slightly radioactive
phosphogypsum waste material into the Floridan Aquifer.”—Sierra Club, Phosphate
Mining

as well as perhaps others; and

WHEREAS, there seems to be no public list of current or proposed phosphate mines, which
include at least

I can attest personally that while these mining operations go on under the public’s nose, we remain in ignorance primarily because Mosaic, like other conglomerates, supports ‘environmental’ causes, splashing their name on everything, while the stacks of gypsum waste piles up. Along Tampa Bay, the tides kept the damage somewhat at bay, along rivers with be disastrous in the imbalance that occurs. Here in Tampa Bay, when Mosaic applied for re-permitting to dump process water into a branch of the Hillsborough River there was one comment against it. When a vice president called me personally he mentioned that since he ‘lived near me’ (which he did) he would naturally be as concerned as I was, especially as he ‘had grandchildren too’. (Odd that he was so well acquainted with my personal information, since I had only recently BECOME a grandparent.)
And even the Sierra Club has drunk the koolaid, as their local club tells people that Mosaic is necessary to feed the world.(!) Of course they have also promoted conversion to natural gas buses. http://www.usf.edu/pcgs/documents/tbccc-november-2013-newsletter.pdf

Actually, Sierra Club is in the forefront of the opposition to the HPS II mine and to a new Mosaic mine. And long ago SC realized fracked methane is not a bridge fuel, publishing a joint Alabama, Georgia, and Florida statement against the Sabal Trail pipeline in 2014. Sierra Club won a court case against Sabal Trail and FERC, which is still in process. -jsq